you can pet the dog at all times :)

Masterpiece. It's Botw with tons more sandbox options and another great story

Shoutout to the friend who kept telling me how great the story was, you were right

2011

Biggest gaming disappointment of my life, I havent trusted preview gameplay footage ever since

Some of the best Fire Emblem gameplay I've had. This game offers so many tools for you to use to maximize your strategies in a huge variety of ways. The Engage mechanic and inherited skills on top of the usual class change mechanic makes for a ton of customization in your units. The difficulty curve hits perfect with each chapter too, it always brought a new challenge to the table but I never felt overwhelmed or underleveled even not doing the skirmishes.

The story is quite simple and predictable, if you've played previous Fire Emblem games you've seen this story before, and personally I disliked the opening cast and wasn't happy with my team until a bit into the game. Characters are very fun and campy and the Support conversations are probably the funniest in the franchise, however, I always felt like I knew nothing about characters that were being added to the party because so many barely get any introduction before they're on the team and never seen in story scenes again.

The Paralogue battles were also done very well, seeing missions themed around each Emblem and their games definitely gave this game the FE love letter feel they intended, I just sort of wish there were more Paralgoues for recruiting new characters

IN CONCLUSION: the gameplay is fantastic and there's a lot to love here, even if the start is a bit rocky imo

A breath of fresh air to the RGG formula from the new setting and combat styles. The story starts off real slow but definitely picks up and becomes more investing towards the second half. And seeing familiar faces play new roles is a fun addition.

Most of the side content focuses on the usual RGG grinds or "bonds" similar to the Judgment games, leaving the side content feeling lackluster compared to the main series.

All in All, a very fun game and a great remaster (putting aside some slight framerate drops on certain story segments on PS5) to a long awaited localization of this entry in the beloved Yakuza/LAD franchise.